Monday, June 21, 2010

Happy anniversary!

Wow, who would have thought it? Today marks the fifth anniversary of this very blog. Yes, it was June 21, 2005, when I started up my own little Oz blog after some encouragement from my wife. I wasn't quite sure what would be in an Oz blog, and even after all this time, I'm still not quite sure. But at least there seem to be plenty of Oz comic strips and Jeopardy! clues to keep things humming.

Today is also an even bigger anniversary for Oz fans, however. For it was twenty-five years ago today that the Disney movie Return to Oz hit theaters. I was housesitting at my grandparents' place in Seattle at the time and working at one of the big downtown banks for the summer, so while there were a lot of theaters showing it, I couldn't get to one of them until the evening. But at least I had a chance to buy up as many different newspapers as I could to get the reviews. One of the local reviewers loved it, giving it a full four stars. One of them hated it. The first reviewer knew of Oz from the books, while the second one only knew of Oz from The Movie — which seemed to be the pattern all over the country. Anyway, I finally got to see it that evening — and stuck around to watch it again. I also managed to pick up some publicity material, which I probably still have buried in some box somewhere.

I'm one of the few Oz fans who doesn't seem to have a very strong opinion of Return to Oz. While I certainly enjoyed it, and I thought Fairuza Balk made a great Dorothy, I also saw it as a bit of a mishmash and a wasted opportunity. By combining two of the best books in the series, they came up with a mediocre script. If they'd stuck closer to either book, I think it would have been a better film.

So what do I plan to do today? Not much. I guess I'll just post something about it on my blog...